Study of pulmonary complications in patients referred to the intensive care unit

Introduction: Respiratory complications in the intensive care unit are important because of their frequency and their negative impact on the course of the underlying disease. One of the main risk factors for these complications is mechanical ventilation, which is often applied in critically ill patients. Our aim was to determine the incidence, risk factors and the impact of respiratory complications on the prognosis in the patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Material and method: In our retrospective study we included adult patients who spent at least 5 days in the intensive care unit of the Emergency County Hospital Târgu Mureș between 1st of January- 30th of April 2019, we excluded patients who were referred with any respiratory pathology.

Results: Of the 75 patients included 49% developed respiratory complications, 56% of which were pneumonia. We observed an association between the development of complications and smoking (p= 0.0103) and prolonged mechanical ventilation (p= 0.0255). ICU admission was significantly longer in patients with respiratory complications (p=0.0010).

Conclusions: The incidence of pulmonary complications is high among patients referred to intensive care units and has a significant impact on the length of hospital stay.